SoftBank's Masayoshi Son in battle royale with Jeff Bezos

Mythical tech tsars, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, are set to renew their e-commerce hostilities in India, the last of the world's potentially big internet markets.Digbijay Mishra&Shalina Pillai | TNN | Updated: August 11, 2017, 09:54 IST

Mythical tech tsars, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, are set to renew their e-commerce hostilities in India, the last of the world's potentially big internet markets. SoftBank's $2.5-billion cheque to Flipkart comes a decade after Bezos surrendered China to Alibaba, the most successful investment by Masa, which turned a startup into an all conquering internet dragon.

Alibaba's sway over China's internet market spawned several other billion-dollar startups in that country, which effectively stalled the American conquest of the world's largest digital economy. From eBay to Uber, the story remain unchanged there. However, Amazon has been a mighty challenger to the homegrown market leader Flipkart in India. Amazon's share price has buoyed Bezos to commit big bucks to win India at all costs - a $5-billion war chest till date.

Amazon has been narrowing the gap with the local e-tailer just as Japanese billionaire Masa shows up as the white knight.

"This is an alpha moment not only for the e-commerce market, but also for the Indian tech ecosystem. It demonstrates trust in the Indian technology market on behalf of the investor community. It also creates a level-playing field between the local leader and its large global challenger, where product and execution determine the winner, rather than access to capital," said Ritesh Banglani, partner at Stellaris Venture Partners.